VIDEO | Philippines, the Nobel Peace reporter: “I have faith, we are no longer in hell”

ROME – “We were in hell, now we are in purgatory“, smiles Maria Ressa, journalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her commitment to protecting freedom of expression and democracy. Talk to the #8217;Dire agency, the reporter, at Palazzo della Cancelleria. In Rome and the Vatican there was the second edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, […]

ROME – “We were in hell, now we are in purgatory“, smiles Maria Ressa, a journalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her commitment to protecting freedom of expression and democracy.
Speak to the Dire agency, the reporter, at Palazzo della Cancelleria. In Rome and the Vatican there was the second edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, two days of debates and “working tables” with 30 Nobel Peace Prize winners. Ressa does not focus on the award received but on the commitment of his Rappler magazine in favor of freedom and democracy, which continued despite the arrests and judicial investigations, two of which are still ongoing.

“In the Philippines with the previous administration we were in hell, now we are in purgatory“, the journalist then says, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte, in power from 2016 to 2022, and then to the current head of state, Ferdinand Marcos Junior.
That of Ressa and the governments of Manila is a complicated story. In the middle there is ‘Rappler’, a national reference online site, born in 2011 and since then always critical of those in power. “Starting from 2017 we had to deal with 21 investigations and then in 2019 the arrest warrants arrived for me too, with 11 cases and even detentions” recalls the journalist, co-founder of the site . “Now there are only two left, one of which could still lead to the closure of Rappler”.
Ressa, however, underlines that she has faith. “Indeed, faith” he smiles again: “We are here in Rome with Pope Francis, who we will meet tomorrow”. According to the reporter, the independence of the magistrates will be decisive for the outcome of the cases. “It is them that I am addressing” underlines Ressa: “They have a great responsibility for our democracy“.
Rappler has repeatedly denounced cases of corruption and violations of human rights< /strong>. Some of the best-known news reports date back to the so-called “war on drugs” waged by the Duterte government. Among the judicial charges against Ressa, dismissed in 2023, also one relating to alleged violations of the rules prohibiting foreign ownership of newspapers.